Friday, July 19, 2013

Media Ignores Obamacare-Related Premium Drops

Early on Wednesday, as House Republicans prepared to vote for a delay of the Affordable Care Act’s employer and individual mandates, New York state officials announced that health care premiums in the new exchange will plummet by at least 50 percent as a result of the law.

For reform advocates, the story represented a reprieve from the
constant drum beat of media coverage about implementation delays,
predictions of rate shock, and employers dropping coverage. But a
ThinkProgress analysis of television reports about the health care law
for Wednesday, July 18th, confirms that even with good news to report,
bookers and segment producers are still far more interested in
broadcasting stories about the political brinkmanship in Washington, DC
than the actual, tangible progress of implementation. New York joined Oregon, Montana, California, and Louisiana in reporting lower than expected rates in the law’s new health care marketplaces.

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As it already stands, 40 percent of Americans don’t know whether the Affordable Care Act is actually law, and for that, the media may be at least partly to blame.